Vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV) is a member of the Rhabdoviridae family of enveloped viruses that contain a single-stranded, nonsegmented, negative-sense RNA genome. The VSV genome is composed of 5 genes arranged sequentially 3′-N-P-M-G-L-5′, which each encode a polypeptide found in mature virions (Rose et al. 2001. Rhabdoviridae: the viruses and their replication, p. 1221-1244. In D. M. Knipe and P. M. Howley (ed.), Fields Virology, vol. 1. Lippincott, Williams and Wilkins, Philadelphia). The virus naturally infects livestock, but is known to infect humans producing mild illness or no symptoms of infection (Clarke et al. 2006. Springer seminars in immunopathology 28:239-253 and Letchworth et al. 1999. Vet J 157:239-260).
VSV is an important technology platform. It is a promising human vaccine vector candidate for a variety of reasons, notably, i) as mentioned above, it does not cause serious disease in humans; ii) genetic systems have been developed for producing recombinant viruses (Conzelmann. 2004. Curr Top Microbiol Immunol 283:1-41); iii) it can be modified to express foreign proteins; iv) it expresses foreign proteins abundantly; v) it elicits immune responses in infected humans (Reif et al. 1987. Am J Trop Med Hyg 36:177-182); and vi) it has been safely tested as a vaccine vector in many animal models including nonhuman primates (Clarke et al. 2006. Springer seminars in immunopathology 28:239-253).
There remains a need to express immunogens in recombinant vaccines. To do so, it is advantageous to have a vector that is genetically stable, easily modified, and efficiently propagated.
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